Canary in a Mine Shaft
by KikitheKiwi
Summary: Helen hears a knock on the door while Bob is out, and finds one her old students. He asks her for help, any help. He's desperate, and Helen doesn't know what to do with the shell of a friend breaking down in front of her.


**I don't own the Incredibles, the idea was just stuck in my head.**

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Helen hadn't expected to hear a knock on the door this early in the night. Violet and Jack just gone to bed; Jack Jack had been sleeping for hours. Bob had just left with Lucius, and Helen was about to begin reading her book, War and Piece.

The first time that she'd heard the knock she had thought she was hallucinating. It was soft, almost hesitant. The knocker was not expecting a reply.

Out of pure worthless hope, the knocker had knocked again. Still quiet, but with a bit more purpose. Helen could not ignore it, so she would not ignore it. Slightly agitated at not being able to read, she walked to the front door with haste. As she swung open the door, she found herself almost jumping back in surprise.

_She remembered the first day she had him in class. He walked through the door, and one of the kids in the back threw a ruler at his head. He ducked._

"Ryan? What are you doing here?" Helen had thought she'd never see Ryan after high school, with his (or was it her? (1)) awkward smile and ridiculous love of _books_ and _learning. _

_And one day he'd walked in with his arm in a sling. She'd wanted to ask him what was wrong. She knew he was the subject of bullying, but was it that bad? _

She also hadn't thought she would see him after heroes were banned."Why are you wearing your Macroburst suit?"

_When Everseer had introduced her to his sidekick, she'd been surprised. Ryan had recognized her immediately and smiled. She smiled back. "I want you to meet my sidekick, Macroburst."_

"I need your help, Elastigirl. Please." He was fiddling with this collar and shifting his weight back and forth from one foot to the other.

_He'd become his own superhero within a year, but with the next, the ban on superpower had been placed._

"Ryan! Why are you dressed like that? You know what will happen," She ushered him inside. Pulling out a seat from the table, she motioned for him to sit down. She down with him and continued her questioning, "What's wrong?"

His eye twitched. (She remembered that it was a tell when he was nervous.) He mumbled over his words for a few moments before falling silent.

"Ryan?"

"I'm going to die."

Helen's motherly instincts kicked in, and she grabbed his hand, "Ryan, what do you mean? What happened?"

He seemed to not hear her words, instead shaking slightly. His pupils were dilated, and his eyes were darting back and forth across the room. Panting, he began to try to speak, but it came out as incoherent syllables. She squeezed his hand and he jumped.

"They're going to kill me. It's going to kill me. I need to kill them, but I can't do it. You have to help me please." He had turned to her and grabbed her arm. The crazed look in his eyes was growing, and Helen wasn't sure if he would start crying or screaming. A few more moments of heavy breathing, and then his eyes focused. He let go of her arm and folded his hands in his lap.

Helen tried to look him in the eyes, but couldn't. Her voice was low, "Ryan, what's going on? Who is they?"

He started panicking, "Everseer got a job. A superhero job. I know that we aren't supposed to be superheroes, but he didn't want to sit back and live normal life. I should've stopped him, I know. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" He was crying.

She patted him on the back, "It's okay; it's okay."

"No, it's not," he cried, "He said he saw his death. He saw mine too. There was machine, he said. And then he didn't come back."

He was curled in on himself, and she tried to wrap her arms around him in a strange comforting hug, but he flinched away.

"Then they contacted me. They wanted me to destroy it. I did, but they want me back. And I know that this is what killed him and will kill me, but I know that they're going to to kill people. I can't sit around; I need to destroy it, but I can't."

He suddenly turned to face her, "Please. You're the only person I can turn to. Everseer is dead. Psycwave is dead. Plasmabolt is missing. You're the only person left to trust."

She could not respond, so she would not respond.

His head drooped, and he went limp. After a sigh, he stood and walked towards the door. "If you get the urge to help me, I still live at the same address. I leave on thursday."

"Ryan..."

"It's Macroburst!" She almost wanted to stop him from leaving, but the crazed looks in his eyes returned. She knew he would not be reasoned with.

He gently shut the door behind him, leaving Helen to think about what had just happened.

"Mom?" A quiet voice came from the other side of the table, "Who was that?"

"Violet?" Helen sighed, "I should just expect you to be awake by now."

"Yeah, Mom," and that would be Dash, "Who was that?" He came out from under the table.

"The both of you should be asleep. Go to bed this instant before your father comes home." She gestured vaguely up the stairs; she was too drained from her talk with Ryan to cope with loud children.

Dash spoke up, "But mom! Dad's always out for, like, forever. And we really wanna know!" He sat down right next to her, where Ryan had been sitting. He put his elbows on the chair of the seat and rested his face on his hands. Looking at her expectantly, he blinked twice.

"It was an old student of mine, looking for advice."

"Mom, you don't have to lie to us. We saw the super suit," Violet was cautious, as if she thought her mother would begin screaming at them.

Dash continued, " And we heard your talk. Are you gonna help him?"

"No, Dash," Helen said to her son, "I'm not going to help him. We're not supposed to be supers anymore, and he knows that. Whatever possessed him to try and reengage hero work..." She trailed off, "He needs to work this out off his system. Alone."

Violet was concerned, "He said he would die."

"He did," Helen sighed, "Everseer used to predict their deaths every other week. We learned pretty quickly that they were false alarms."

Dash pouted, "Okay. Just once I wish we could go out and kick some bad guy butt."

"Stick to the cartoons," Helen said, "And go to bed!" She picked Dash up and motioned for Violet to follow her. After making sure Dash stayed in his bed, she tucked Violet in and wished them both a good night.

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**Good? Bad? I have a second chapter planned, but I don't know if I should continue.**

**(1) Macroburst's file says that the gender is androgynous, but I didn't want to call him it.**


End file.
